We are visiting Norway in August 2003. We have too little time and too many places to visit.If we had to choose between Bergen and Alesund, which to delete? Or if we delete both, we can travel by rail and add Stockholm and Helsinki (1 day each) on our way to St Petersburg.Otherwise we must fly from Oslo to St. Petersburg at the end of our Norway visit. Looking for suggestions.

Definately you have to delete both and go to Stockholm and Helsinki. That sounds much more exciting!!!!!!

I loved both Bergen and Alesund, especially Alesund and the nearby islands. I'm tempted to agree with Jess, but what is the actual travel arrangement? If it means traveling all day to get to Stockholm to go to bed for the night, then leave the next day to travel all day to Helskinki to spend another night, then I'd say no. If you will have at least a full day IN each place then I say go for that.

If in scandinavia, the cities aren't so much attractions as the natural scenery. Norwegian fjords on it's west coast are titanic wonders of the world that shouldn't be missed in order to chalk up yet another small time city.<BR><BR>You used to be able to sample the best fjord scenery as a daytrip from Oslo, but train scheds now require at least overnight in Bergen. Do the Norway in Nutshell trip on your way to or from Bergen (not wasting time basing from Bergen itself).<BR><BR>For example day 1, train almost to Voss area, change to little flam train, take boat trip to bus back to Voss, then train to Bergen. Overnight in Bergen, and if in a rush train back to Oslo for afternoon tour, them onward to Stockholm or whatever. Web pages detail the nutshell and other tours.

It depends of the rest of your Scandinavian itinerary. If you leave out Norwegian fjord country all together you are making a huge mistake, and you really don’t do Stockholm justice with just one day/night (two is a minimum I think). For me Bergen is not a must, but it is convenient and maybe better in wintertime? For me Aalesund is far better in summer, and you can make a one-day sightseeing tour by bus to the Trollroad, Eagle Road and Geiranger, ferry to Hellesylt and on to Aalesund. There are also tours to the islands surrounding Aalesund.

I agree with jt, much as I like both Stockholm and Helsinki, that the Norwegian fjord scenery is magic and you should see it.<BR>In the summer you could get the Hurtigrute from &Aring;lesund to Geiranger and return either the same way or by bus over the Eagles Highway and the Trollstiggen to &Aring;ndalsnes and back from there. If you want to see my entries with photos on other boards, e-mail me mentioning &Aring;lesund and Bergen and I will provide some URLs.

Nice pictures and travelreport davidx.

We will have 2 days in Geiranger and 2 days in Balesrand. We were going to stay 1 day each in Alesund and Bergen. If we delete both, we can take the train to Oslo and midnight train to Stockholm. Spend day in Stockholm and night in Stockholm. Next day Ferry to Turku and train to Helsinki spend night and next day in Helsinki before taking train to St. Petersburg. Is it worth it?

It would be worth it if you instead of taking the ferry to Turku, stayed on in Stockholm and instead took the (party! boat) night ferry from Stockholm at 5pm arriving Helsinki 9am. You will loose some time in Helsinki but the extra time in Stockholm would be worth it.